To children we force to be braver than they should have to be
KAZAKHSTAN KYRGYZSTAN TURKMENISTAN CHINA TAJIKISTAN WAKHAN CORRIDOR Mazar e Sharif Kunduz Jammu Kashmir Kabul •Jalalabad NIS TAN IRAN Kandahar REGISTAN DESERT KIS TAN VI Gulf of Oman IN DIA OMAN AFGHANISTAN North Europe Asia Aria South America Australia Antarctica
ONE A man Parvana didn’t know gave one final pat to the dirt mounded up over her father’s grave The village mullah had already recited the jenazah the prayer for the dead The funeral service was over Small sharp stones dug into Parvana’s knees as she knelt at the edge of the grave and placed the large stones she had gathered around it She put each one down slowly There was no reason to hurry She had nowhere else to go There were not enough rocks The ones she had gathered only went halfway around the rectangle of turned up earth Spread them out a man said and he bent down to help her They spread out the stones but Parvana didn’t like the gaps She thought briefly about taking rocks from other graves but that didn’t seem right She would find more
